Children Solving Problems (Paperback)

Stephanie Thornton

ISBN 10: 0674116240 / ISBN 13: 9780674116245

Verlag: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1998

Beschreibung

Paperback. A one-year-old attempting to build a tower of blocks may bring the pile crashing down, yet her five-year-old sister accomplishes this task with ease. Why do young children have difficulty with problems that present no real challenge to older children? How do problem-solving skills develop? In Children Solving Problems, Stephanie Thornton surveys recent research from a broad range of perspectives in order to explore this important question.What Thornton finds may come as a surprise: successful problem-solving depends less on how smart we are-or, as the pioneering psychologist Jean Piaget claimed, how advanced our skill in logical reasoning is-and more on the factual knowledge we acquire as we learn and interpret cues from the world around us.Problem-solving skills evolve through experience and dynamic interaction with a problem. But equally important-as the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky proposed-is social interaction. Successful problem-solving is a social process. Sharing problem-solving tasks-with skilled adults and with other children-is vital to a child's growth in expertise and confidence. In problem-solving, confidence can be more important than skill.In a real sense, problem-solving lies at the heart of what we mean by intelligence. The ability to identify a goal, to work out how to achieve it, and to carry out that plan is the essence of every intelligent activity. Could it be, Thornton suggests, that problem-solving processes provide the fundamental machinery for cognitive development? In Children Solving Problems she synthesizes the dramatic insights and findings of post-Piagetian research and sets the agenda for the next stage in understanding the varied phenomena of children's problem-solving. Thornton surveys research from a broad range of perspectives in order to explore why successful problem-solving depends less on how smart we areor, as the pioneering psychologist Jean Piaget claimed, how advanced is our skill in logical reasoningand more on the factual knowledge we acquire as we learn and interpret cues from the world around us. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9780674116245

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Children Solving Problems (Paperback)
• Verlag: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1998
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0674116240
• ISBN-13: 9780674116245
• Einband: Paperback
• Zustand: new

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Problem-solving skills evolve through experience and dynamic interaction with a problem. But equally important-as the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky proposed-is social interaction. Successful problem-solving is a social process. Sharing problem-solving tasks-with skilled adults and with other children-is vital to a child's growth in expertise and confidence. In problem-solving, confidence can be more important than skill. In a real sense, problem-solving lies at the heart of what we mean by intelligence. The ability to identify a goal, to work out how to achieve it, and to carry out that plan is the essence of every intelligent activity. Could it be, Thornton suggests, that problem-solving processes provide the fundamental machinery for cognitive development? In Children Solving Problems she synthesizes the dramatic insights and findings of post-Piagetian research and sets the agenda for the next stage in understanding the varied phenomena of children's problem-solving.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephanie Thornton is Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex.